The cross-referenced and incorporated patent applications disclose various techniques for automatically generating narrative stories from raw data using various algorithms and data structures. For example, these patent applications describe how a narrative story about a baseball game can be automatically generated from a box score, line score, and play-by-play of that baseball game. Various derived features can be computed from these raw data, and a story generator can leverage these derived features along with the raw data to assess what angles apply to the baseball game—for example, was the game a “come from behind victory” for one of the teams?—and these angles are then used to determine what should be included in a narrative story about the game.
The cross-referenced and incorporated patent applications also disclose that these derived features can be used to determine whether it is desirable to write a narrative story about a subject in the first place. As an example, these cross-referenced and incorporated patent applications disclose that the raw data can be compared with a threshold to produce a derived feature that governs whether a narrative story will be written about a subject in the first place.
In this patent application, the inventors expand upon this concept of evaluating the circumstances under which it is desirable to automatically generate a narrative story about a subject, and disclose various software and hardware implementations that can be used to evaluate data to decide whether a narrative story is to be generated.
In an exemplary embodiment, a story evaluation method comprises (1) accessing an angle set data structure in a memory, the angle set data structure comprising (i) data representative of at least one story angle and (ii) data associated with the at least one story angle that is representative of at least one applicability condition for the associated at least one story angle, (2) processing data against the angle set data structure to determine whether at least one applicability condition for at least one story angle has been satisfied by the processed data, and (3) in response to the processing step, generating an evaluation indicator, the evaluation indicator being indicative of whether a narrative story relating to the processed data is to be generated, and wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.
In another exemplary embodiment, a computer program product for story evaluation comprises a plurality of instructions that are executable by a processor to (1) access an angle set data structure in a memory, the angle set data structure comprising (i) data representative of at least one story angle and (ii) data associated with the at least one story angle that is representative of at least one applicability condition for the associated at least one story angle, (2) process data against the angle set data structure to determine whether at least one applicability condition for at least one story angle has been satisfied by the processed data, and (3) in response to the processing operation, generate an evaluation indicator, the evaluation indicator being indicative of whether a narrative story relating to the processed data is to be generated, and wherein the plurality of instructions are resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.
In yet another exemplary embodiment, a story evaluation apparatus comprises (1) a memory for storing an angle set data structure, the angle set data structure comprising (i) data representative of at least one story angle and (ii) data associated with the at least one story angle that is representative of at least one applicability condition for the associated at least one story angle, and (2) a processor configured to (i) process data against the angle set data structure to determine whether at least one applicability condition for at least one story angle has been satisfied by the processed data, and (ii) in response to the processing operation, generate an evaluation indicator, the evaluation indicator being indicative of whether a narrative story relating to the processed data is to be generated.
In another exemplary embodiment, the inventors disclose a method comprising (1) processing data against a plurality of conditions, (2) computing interestingness data relating to the processed data in response to the processing step, (3) comparing the interestingness data with a threshold, and (4) determining whether to automatically generate a story relating to the processed data in response to the comparing step, and wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.
In another exemplary embodiment, the inventors disclose a computer program product comprising a plurality of instructions that are executable by a processor to (1) process data against a plurality of conditions, (2) compute interestingness data relating to the processed data in response to the processing operation, (3) compare the interestingness data with a threshold, and (4) determine whether to automatically generate a story relating to the processed data in response to the comparison operation, and wherein the plurality of instructions are resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.
In yet another exemplary embodiment, the inventors disclose an apparatus comprising a processor configured to (1) process data against a plurality of conditions, (2) compute interestingness data relating to the processed data in response to the processing operation, (3) compare the interestingness data with a threshold, and (4) determine whether to automatically generate a story relating to the processed data in response to the comparison operation.
Further still, as another exemplary embodiment, the inventors disclose an apparatus comprising (1) a memory for storing data about at least one story angle, and (2) a processor for interacting with the memory to execute a software program, the software program comprising a story evaluator module, the story evaluator module configured to process data relating to a subject against the story angle data to determine whether a narrative story about the subject is to be automatically generated.
In yet another exemplary embodiment, the inventors disclose a story evaluation method comprising (1) receiving data representative of financial instrument information, (2) determining whether any of a plurality of story angles are applicable to the financial instrument information by testing a plurality of applicability conditions for the story angles against the received data, and (3) in response to the determining step determining that at least one of the story angles is applicable to the financial instrument information, automatically generating a narrative story about the financial instrument information, wherein the narrative story incorporates the at least applicable story angle, and wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.
In yet another exemplary embodiment, the inventors disclose a method for applying artificial intelligence technology to process data and automatically generate a narrative story about the data, the method comprising: (1) a processor executing a story evaluation program, wherein the story evaluation program executing step comprises computing an evaluation indicator about a data set according to defined metrics, the evaluation indicator indicating whether a narrative story about the data set is to be generated, (2) a processor triggering an execution of a story generation program in response to the evaluation indicator indicating that the narrative story about the data set is to be generated, (3) a processor executing the story generation program in response to the triggering step, the story generation program executing step comprising automatically rendering a narrative story about the data set based on an angle data structure that is deemed to appropriately characterize the data set, and (4) repeating the story evaluation program executing step, the triggering step, and the story generation program executing step with respect to a plurality of data sets to thereby automatically generate a plurality of the narrative stories. The inventors further disclose computer program products and apparatuses corresponding to such a method.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention are disclosed herein and will be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art upon review of the description and figures hereinafter.